Oxford University's Centre for Technology and Global Affairs, together with Measure and other drone companies and organizations, joined forces in a leading effort to explore the future governance landscape of civil airspace and the global industry for Unmanned and Autonomous Aerial Vehicles (UAVs & AAVs).

As part of this initiative, the Centre hosted the 1st "Robotic Skies" Workshop: The Role of Private Industry and Public Policy in Shaping the Drones Industry on June 21st and 22nd in Oxford. The workshop brought together practitioners, policymakers, and experts from industry, government, and academia to examine governance and regulatory challenges associated with the burgeoning UAV and AAV industry.

Centre Director Lucas Kello said, “Recent technological advances have outpaced policy discussions. In view of such a development, the Centre's researchers are undertaking interdisciplinary research at the intersection of technology, industry, and government policy."

Discussions at the workshop examined the latest developments in drones-as-a-service, Unmanned Traffic Management (UTM), technological advances in geofencing, industry-led initiatives in raising safety awareness of drones users, as well as the interplay between data, digitalization, and automation in facilitating the future commercialization of UAV and AAV technologies.

Senior speakers at the workshop included Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General of Mobility and Transport at the European Commission; Pavel Abdur-Rahman, Data Scientist and Associate Partner at IBM; Jessie Mooberry, Head of Deployment with Altiscope from Airbus; and Christian Struwe, Head of European Public Policy at DJI, among others.

The Centre's Founding Donor, Artur Kluz, reflected: "I am pleased to see that the first workshop on the future of autonomous drones perfectly fulfils the Oxford Centre's long-term vision to serve as a powerful policy-building hub for the beneficial development of breakthrough technologies."

Other comments about the workshop include the following.

"The 1st Robotics Skies Workshop has been a tremendous opportunity to witness the state of the art in UAVs," said Ludovic Drouin, Science and Technology Officer from the French Embassy in London. "The workshop was foremost in shaping a potential harmonized regulatory framework and in understanding inherent challenges associated with the future of the industry."

"By convening industry, government, academia, and civil service, Robotic Skies fostered necessary deep and wide conversations about the role of automation in our airspace as well as the physical and digital infrastructure required to enable this future," said Jessie Mooberry from Airbus, one of the workshop's panel speakers.

“It was an honour to participate with Oxford University and drone experts from industry and government to begin an important discussion at the intersection of UAV technology and government policy,” said Brandon Torres Declet from Measure.

The Robotic Skies Workshop was the first in a series of events aimed at creating a sustainable forum of inter-sectoral dialogue to exchange knowledge across industries and disciplines. Synthesizing insights from industry, government, and academia, the Centre's Robotics Programme seeks to produce research outputs on a number of pressing topics, including safety and security recommendations for the early adoption of autonomous machine technologies as well as strategies to address persistent problems such as future traffic management systems and enabling full commercialization of UAVs and AAVs.

The Centre for Technology and Global Affairs at Oxford University is a global research and policy-building initiative focusing on the impact of technology on international relations, government, and society. The Centre serves as a bridge between researchers and the worlds of technology and policymaking to impact policy in the resolution of pressing problems across six technological dimensions: Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Cyber Issues, Blockchain, Outer Space, and Nuclear Issues. Artur Kluz is Founding Donor of the Centre for Technology and Global Affairs and the Centre was supported by core funding from Kluz Ventures.

Measure is an aerial intelligence company specialized in collecting, analyzing, and delivering information that transforms how businesses make decisions to keep people safe and assets at peak performance. Through thousands of commercial flights, a specialized data engineering team, and a portfolio of scalable solutions, we deliver the benefits of drone technology to clients in energy, construction, and public safety.

Kluz Ventures is a global investment firm, which makes investments in sectors that will revolutionize our world and drive future growth. This includes prominent investments in the business and technology of flight, from drones to satellites and space, through its fund - The Flying Object. Through other funds, Kluz Ventures is also actively investing in artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, as well as digital health, life science and cutting-edge medical technologies.